I'd argue that it's not human nature but rather our socio-economic system that keeps us grinding away. It's become obvious that for the most part automation does a disservice to workers rather than liberating them since they don't have the legal ownership of the automating forces. A typical factory or whatever if it is able to automate 20% of the current work being done will simply lay off 20% of its workforce rather than reduce everyone's workload by 20% while maintaining their wage.
Now this creates a bit of a crisis since the automated production produces things that need to be bought by the workers they displace, who now no longer have any money. The outcome as I see it is an extension of credit systems and the propagation of tedious nonsense jobs (ala Graeber's Bullshit Jobs).
In order to bring about the ideal of automation creating more free time for all without diminishing their income you'd have to transfer ownership of the automating forces to the workers they're replacing. But then I'm just a Marxist looney so what do I know.
This seems plausible that it has something to do with our economy and maybe capitalism specifically, and I’m kinda familiar with Marx, but I wonder if there isn’t more to it. The reason I say this is because I think I’ve worked the hardest in my life when I started a business. I’m not 100% certain, because I’ve put in a lot of long hours on my various jobs. But, it felt like it was much easier to work long hours on my startup than it did for BigCo or even for someone else’s startup. The desire to make my startup successful, and the fact that I was the owner and was responsible for anything bad that happened, that all made me work even harder, I think. Poking around on HN, it sure seems like lots of other startup founders do the same and might be working harder than the average worker bee.
Now this creates a bit of a crisis since the automated production produces things that need to be bought by the workers they displace, who now no longer have any money. The outcome as I see it is an extension of credit systems and the propagation of tedious nonsense jobs (ala Graeber's Bullshit Jobs).
In order to bring about the ideal of automation creating more free time for all without diminishing their income you'd have to transfer ownership of the automating forces to the workers they're replacing. But then I'm just a Marxist looney so what do I know.